This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Saturday:
It’s a moonless August morning. The first remnant of dawn has not appeared yet.
Suddenly, you notice a large softly radiant pyramid of light in the east sky.
The base of this ghostly triangle is along the east horizon and the peak
stretches two or three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the horizon
about two hours before sunrise. Don’t be scared. It’s not really a ghost. It is
an effect called the zodiacal light. This light comes from sunlight reflecting
off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible when the
band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the horizon.
You need a clear dark sky with no haze or light pollution to see the zodiacal light.
At its brightest, the zodiacal light rivals the light of the central Milky Way.
This is one of the best times of year to see the zodiacal light in the morning.

This is
also one of the best times of the year to see meteors. The Perseid meteor
shower peaks early next week. But you should see increased meteor activity
later this week just below the W of the constellation Cassiopeia. This point is
about two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the northeast
horizon at 11 p.m. By dawn, this point is about seven fists above the northeast
horizon

Sunday: At
9 p.m., Venus is about a half a fist above the west horizon and Saturn is two
fists above the southwest horizon. How’s that for an uncreative description of
the night sky?

Monday:
Let’s all sing the galactic black hole monster song: “D is for dusty, that’s
good enough for me. D is for dusty that’s good enough for me. D is for dusty
that’s good enough for me. Oh dusty, dusty, dusty starts with D.” Astronomers
know that spiral galaxies such as our own have super massive black holes in the
center, black holes that are billions of times the mass of the Sun. They
thought they got to be this massive by mergers where two galaxies collide and
the gas, dust and black holes at the center of each colliding galaxy form a
larger central black hole. But many distant galaxies show no signs of galactic
mergers. Astronomers think the black holes at the center of these galaxies grew
simply by snacking on the gas and dust that comes from supernova explosions and
normal star formation. Just like the Cookie Monster gains weight by snacking on
individual cookies rather than eating a cookie factory. Cookie crumbs, I mean
dust, block your view of the center of our galaxy.It is about one fist above due south at 10 p.m., between the
constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/GRrWa.

Tuesday: Hercules
stands almost directly overhead at 10:30 this evening. Four moderately bright
stars form a lopsided square that represents his body, while his head points
southward.

Wednesday:
School starts in about a month so it is time to start reviewing your geometric
shapes. Let’s start with the right triangle that is a fist above the
west-southwest horizon at 10 p.m. The bluish star Spica is at the right angle,
in the lower left corner of the triangle. Saturn is a half a fist above Spica
and Mars a fist to the right of Spica.

Thursday: First
mentioned exactly a month ago, Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin.
But, far from being kissing cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills
Sirius in a fight at the Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third
brightest star in the constellation Orion the hunter. You can find it two fists
above the east horizon at 5 am. But, don’t turn you back on it!

Friday: When
you got up early yesterday, you may have noticed a very bright point of light
two and a half fists to the left of Bellatrix and two fists above the east
horizon. That is the planet Jupiter. Mars is a fist to the lower left of
Jupiter. Continue following the line from Jupiter to Mars and you’ll reach the
elusive Mercury. It is less than a half a fist above the northeast horizon.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Saturday: Venus
is one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9 p.m. Saturn
is two and a half fists above the southwest horizon at this time.

Sunday: The
Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks tonight and early tomorrow morning.
Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear
to originate. “Hi de hi de hi de hi”, these meteors appear to come from a point
in Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. “Ho de ho de ho de
ho”, this point is about one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 1 am tomorrow morning. (The well-known scat singer
Cab Calloway must have had an interest in this star.) You can follow this point
throughout the night, as it will remain a fist above Fomalhaut, the brightest
star in that section of the sky. The
best time to view the shower is after midnight. Unfortunately, the waning
gibbous moon will obscure all but the brightest meteors.

Monday: If
you want to show your loved ones a celestial sign that they should hang up
their clothes, show them Brocchi's Cluster, commonly known as the Coat Hanger
cluster because of its resemblance to an upside down coat hanger. The cluster
is six fists above the southeast horizon at 10:30 p.m., midway between Altair
and Vega, the two brightest stars in the Summer Triangle. You'll need
binoculars to make out the shape. First find Altair four fists above the
southeast horizon. Slowly move your binoculars up toward Vega. You will run
into the coat hanger along the way. And while you are at it, put away your
shoes.

Tuesday: This
morning, Mercury will be as far away from the Sun in the sky as it will get
this orbital cycle. This "farthest away" point is known as the
planet's greatest elongation. This morning and tomorrow morning will be the
best mornings to observe Mercury for the next few weeks. Mercury is less than a
fist above the east-northeast horizon at 5 a.m. Over the next few weeks,
Mercury will move toward the Sun in the sky. By late September, it will be
visible in the evening sky. While Mercury will be less favorable for viewing,
Mars and Jupiter will be getting higher in the sky over the next few months.
Jupiter is the brightest point of light, a fist and a half above the
east-northeast horizon and mars is less than a half a fist to the lower left of
Jupiter. All three of these planets are in the constellation Gemini.

Wednesday:
The bright star Arcturus is three fists above the west horizon at 11 p.m.

Thursday: In
Scotland, August 1 was known as Lammas, the festival of the first wheat harvest
of the year. You can remember this by looking at Spica, named after the Latin
word for “ear of wheat”, one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the
west-southwest horizon at 9:30 p.m. August 1 is known as a cross-quarter day, a
day approximately half way between an equinox and a solstice.

Friday: Had
the script been written a little differently for a well-known Robin Williams
movie, we might have heard Mr. Williams shout, “Goooood Morning Orion the
hunter”. Orion is typically thought of as a winter constellation. But, it makes
its first appearance in the summer sky. The lowest corner of Orion’s body,
represented by the star Saiph (pronounced “safe”), rises at 4:30 a.m., well
before the Sun. By 5 a.m., Orion’s belt is about one fist above the east-southeast
horizon.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Saturday: Take
a two and a half hour walk. Too long, you say? Forty-four years ago today, Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever walk by humans on another world.
They spend two and a half hours setting up scientific instruments and
collecting rocks for study back on Earth. Michael Collins orbited the Moon in
the spacecraft the astronauts would use to return to Earth.

Sunday: It’s
another bird. No, it’s another plane. No, it’s another super moon. The moon has
been very close to perigee for the past two full moons and is again this full
moon. At perigee, the moon is at its closest to the earth. (After all, that’s
what perigee means.) And when items are closer to us, they appear larger. So a
super moon is really a close moon. Maybe the close talker on the show
“Seinfeld” should have been called the super talker.

Monday: The
Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks for the next few nights and early
mornings with the greatest concentration of meteors being visible next weekend.
Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear
to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Aquarius near the
star Delta Aquarii, also known as Skat. This point is about one and a half
fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southeast horizon at 1 am tonight.
You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain a fist above
Fomalhaut, the brightest star in that section of the sky. The best time to view the shower is after
midnight between moonset and dawn. You’ll have to look closely because the
moonlight will obscure the dimmer meteors. As you Mother might say, dress warm
and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks
that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

Tuesday: Saturn
is two fists above due southwest at 10 p.m.

Wednesday:
Altair, at one corner of the Summer Triangle, is four fists above the southeast
horizon at 11 p.m. Altair is one of the closest bright stars, so close that
fictional astronauts visited a planet orbiting Altair in the 1956 movie
“Forbidden Planet”.

Thursday: Do
you want an easy way to find due north? A compass points to magnetic north,
which is a few degrees off of true geographic north. Well, tonight’s your
night. Capella, the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer,
is due north at exactly 10:03 p.m. It looks like a bright light on a pole on
the north ridge because is only about one degree above the horizon.

Friday: Hot
enough for you? If not, astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space telescope think
they have discovered a molten planet orbiting a star almost right next door on
an astronomical scale – only 33 light years away. This planet is about
two-thirds the diameter of Earth and is VERY close to its parent star – about
2% of the Earth-Sun distance. The star, GJ 436, is a dim red dwarf star. For
more information about this discovery, read the NASA press release at http://goo.gl/9nY8w.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Saturday:
Being in a coma is a bad thing. Looking at the Coma Star Cluster is a good
thing. The Coma Star Cluster is an open cluster of about 50 stars that takes up
more space in the sky than 10 full Moons. It looks like a fuzzy patch with the
naked eye. Binoculars reveal dozens of sparkling stars. A telescope actually
diminishes from the spectacle because the cluster is so big and the telescope’s
field of view is so small. The Coma Star Cluster is in the faint constellation
Coma Berenices (ba-ron-ice’-ez) or Queen Berenice’s hair. Queen Berenice of
Egypt cut off her beautiful hair as a sacrifice to the gods for the safe return
of her husband Ptolemy III from battle. The Coma Star Cluster is about three
fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 11:00 p.m.

Sunday: The
long summer days remind us to take some time to safely observe the Sun. The
best way to do that is to go to http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and watch
the great images and videos that come from the Solar Dynamics Observer, or SDO
for short. We are approaching a sunspot maximum scheduled to peak at the end of
the year. So what, you say? Sunspots and associated phenomena greatly influence
the strength of solar flares. The strongest flares can affect satellites
orbiting the Earth and even electronics on the Earth’s surface.

Monday: Would
you like to take the small finger test? First, find the first quarter moon, one
and a half fists above the southwest horizon at 10 p.m. Just to the upper right
of the moon is the bright star Spica. If you can fit your finger between Spica
and the moon, you pass the test.

Tuesday: Saturn
is about a half a fist to the upper right of the moon at 10 p.m.

Wednesday:
Say "Cheese". 163 years ago today, Vega, in the constellation Lyra
the lyre, became the first star ever photographed. The photograph was done at
the Harvard Observatory using the daguerreotype process. Vega is the third
brightest nighttime star we can see in Ellensburg, behind Sirius and Arcturus.
Vega is nearly straight overhead at 11:00 tonight.

Thursday: Now
that Pluto’s two newest moons have been named Kerberos and Styx, the dwarf
planet system is probably going to release a Styx tribute album featuring these
songs. Blue Color Plan(et): “I’ll take those long nights, impossible cold,
keeping my eye for the spacecraft. If it takes nine years to show me in the
cam. Well, I’m gonna be a blue color plan(et)”. Too much time on my hands: “Is
it any wonder I take two-fifty years? Is it any wonder I’m made of hail. Is it
any wonder I’ve got too much time on my hands”. The New Horizons spacecraft, on
a nine year journey to reach Pluto in 2015, even has a contribution to the
album: “Babe, I’m leaving, I must be on my way. Pluto is drawing near.” You
can’t see Pluto with binoculars or even a small telescope. But you can see a
picture of the dwarf planet system at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130708.html.

Friday: Jupiter
is one fist above the east-northeast horizon at 5 a.m.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Saturday: At
10 p.m., the bright star Regulus is a little less than one fist held upright
and at arm’s length above the west horizon. But, who is this Regulus? He has
many potential identities. The most interesting from a pop culture standpoint
is Regulus Black, the brother of Sirius Black who is Harry Potter’s godfather.
Regulus Black was a former follower of Voldemort, the bad guy of the Harry
Potter series. However, Regulus tried to dissociate himself from Voldemort and
was killed. He would be in the pile of forgotten Harry Potter characters except
that he is so interesting. Also, in the sixth book, Harry found an important
note written by someone known only by the initials R.A.B. Hmmm. R.A.B. Regulus
A. Black perhaps? Summer is a great time to read the books. Just seeing the
movies is not good enough.

Sunday: But
what does the “A” stand for? Anthony? Abercrombie? Alfonzo? Not astronomical
enough. It stands for Arcturus, the second brightest star visible in the
nighttime sky in Washington and at Hogwarts. Arcturus is five fists above the
southwest horizon at 10 p.m. The bright star Spica and Saturn are halfway
between Arcturus and the southwest horizon and about a fist from each other.
Spica is the slightly brighter object on the lower right within the pair.

Monday:
Bellatrix Lestrange is Sirius Black’s cousin. But, far from being kissing
cousins. They are killing cousins. Bellatrix kills Sirius in a fight at the
Ministry of Magic. Bellatrix the star is the third brightest star in the
constellation Orion the hunter. She’s hiding in the glow of the Sun right now.
We’ll look for her next month.

Tuesday: Of
course, Bellatrix is in cahoots with “he who must not be named”. Now, that’s a
poor sentence, using an obscure synonym for “conspiring” and a non-specific
reference. I must be under the curse “writicus dreadfulium”. Clearly this is
the work of Tom Riddle, whose mother is named Merope Gaunt. Merope is a star in
the Pleiades, an open star cluster about two fists above the east-northeast
horizon at 4 a.m.

Wednesday:
Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s young nemesis, is related to Sirius Black. Draco’s
mother, Narcissa Black (Sirius’ cousin), helped develop a plan to trap Harry at
the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. Draco’s namesake, the constellation
Draco the dragon is one of the largest constellations in the sky, winding
around the North Star. Draco’s head is a four-sided figure nearly straight
overhead at 11 p.m.

Thursday: Fred
and George Weasley are the best-known twins in the Harry Potter universe. Venus
is sometimes called Earth’s twin. After all, both have a surface temperature of
about 860 degrees Fahrenheit, both have thick clouds of sulfur dioxide, both
have a chest crushing atmospheric pressure, both have…. Wait. Earth doesn’t
have any of those. How can they be “twins”? Venus is called Earth’s twin
because they have about the same mass, radius, gravitational pull, and are
similar distances to the Sun. Venus is a little less than a fist above the
west-northwest horizon at 9:30 p.m.

Friday:
Not every woman in the Black family is evil. Let’s focus on the good. Andromeda
Black, Bellatrix’s sister, is a good witch and the mother of Tonks, a young
witch from the last few Harry Potter books. (If these Harry Potter references
are confusing, talk to an adolescent about them.) Andromeda the constellation
is an interesting one. It contains the Andromeda galaxy, the most distant
object visible with the naked eye from a dark site. To locate the Andromeda
Galaxy, first find the Great Square of Pegasus. At 11:00 p.m., the left hand
corner of the square is about one and a half fists above the east-northeast
horizon. Less than two fists to the left and down a little bit is another star
the same brightness as the star at the corner of the square. From that star,
hop about a half a fist up to a star that is about one fourth as bright. Less
than another half fist in the same direction is a fuzzy oval patch of light
known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy is impressive to see in binoculars.
It consists of about 400 billion stars and is 2.2 million light years away.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.